A summary of things happening in the OpenStreetMap world

weekly 298

Mapping

User Markus writes about the Bing and Google ariel photos in China and highlights the importance of verifying the data that is added locally. This can be done by contacting travelers who would like to learn more about OSM and start contributing.

A presentation by Galante about Mapping the Roman Villa of Patti Marina (an archaeological site in Palermo, Italy) in OpenStreetMap.

User moenk writes in the forum about a tool called Mapradar which can be used to map using Mapillary.

A proposal about Marine shops, which are shops “where one can buy various pieces of boats equipment and replacement parts”. The proposal is about adding the tags shop=marine (shops selling marine hardware) and shop=boat (shops selling boats).

A user in the tagging mailing list asks about the presence of two tags sport=shotput and sport=shot_put in the database, but is not sure as to which is the most relevant one to use as there are no clear instructions about them in the OSM wiki.

Voting has begun for the proposed featureamenity=internet_cafe, all the votes until now are in favour of this tag.

Community

On the talk-gb list, EdLoach suggested that buildings without addresses and farmland without infrastructure such as hedges and gates should be deleted to better allow the “proper mapping” of those features. Almost no one realized that the date was actually April 1st and it was a prank! 😉

The OpenCage Data Blog interviews four mappers at a time to report about the state of the map and the local community in the Czech Republic.

A presentation about OpenStreetMap past(s) and future(s) (on the AAG2016) by Alan McConchie.

Zoltan Sylvester illustrates how rivers change with the passing of time by using Landsat images of the last 30 years.

Rob Nickerson starts a discussion about the future of OSM in contrast to the opening up of more and more official data in GB.

Steve Coast proposes having an official OSM Slack, he also includes details of existing OSM related slack instances. This has started a wider discussion about usage of Slack within the OSM community.

Wanted a student or a graduate student for the development of a digital sustainability map for Karlsruhe. Good german is required part of a project from Quartier Zukunft a project from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

State of the Map organizing committee writes about the attacks in Brussels where this year’s State of the Map is organized.

Events

OSM US offers scholarships for the State of the Map US, deadline to apply for scholarships is 24th of April.

Mapillary is hosting an event Fotocaminata in Lima (Peru) on the 17th of April in collaboration with OpenStreetMap Peru and GDG Lima.

Humanitarian OSM

A joint effort between the World Bank’s Dar Ramani Huria and Mapillary aims to start mapping unmapped streets in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Maps

A map to visualize noise pollution for the whole world which uses OSM data. A simple noise model is used which is inspired by noise pollution concept of Cities Skylines.

switch2OSM

INRIX Traffic 6.0 has redesigned it’s traffic information application which uses OpenStreetMap. This app learns preferences and daily routines of the user and based on the learned activities makes a daily personalized itinerary with the anticipated tours and frequently used routes.

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What is the idea?

weeklyOSM updates the community, on a weekly basis, about what is going on in the OSM Universe. weeklyOSM is intended for everyone, from experienced mappers to new OSM members. It is created by mappers and OSM enthusiasts. Contributors to weeklyOSM in all languages are always welcome. Due to the enormous workload (52 issues per year, no vacations, no holidays) new languages can only be set up if three mappers agree to cooperate.

The idea of weeklyOSM is to collect relevant OSM news from all over the world, process it and translate it into as many languages as possible. This should help to inform the community as comprehensively as possible and overcome language barriers.

weeklyOSM is independent of all organisations and companies. This applies to OSMF, HOT, FOSSGIS … and all other companies not listed here. Nevertheless, we would be happy if our current issue (in whatever language) would appear on the start page of the Wiki on an equal footing with “Use OpenStreetMap”, “Contribute free map data” and “Software Development”. We would also like to point out that the editorial staff are not subject to OSMF supervision.